eduGAIN Operational Practice Statement (Draft)

This document describes procedures used in the management of the eduGAIN core, i.e. global eduGAIN membership issues and information services. The eduGAIN services are managed by the eduGAIN Operational Team (OT). Additional operational documentation is provided separately for each of the eduGAIN operational profiles.

Operational Team tasks

As defined in [eduGAIN-CONST] the Operational Team (OT) is responsible for:

• Daily technical issues in central eduGAIN operations (e.g. website, central member database).
• Collaboration with the operators of each Technology Profile.
• Receiving enquiries about eduGAIN and forwarding them to the appropriate body.
• Receiving, reviewing and processing applications to join eduGAIN against basic eligibility criteria as set out in the eduGAIN Policy Declaration.
• Preparing and publishing an eduGAIN Operational Practice Statement (this document) for the eduGAIN interfederation service, covering central operations and relationship with each technology profile.
• Preparing an audit plan for the eduGAIN operational practices on the request of the eSG.

eduGAIN Joining and Membership

eduGAIN recognises two categories of federation within its structure: members and participants.  Members are those federations that have completed the first steps to joining eduGAIN, but are not actively using any technology profile (such as providing SAML metadata to the MDS) at the moment.  Many federations may become a member AND provide documentation to actively join a federation at the same time.  This Operational Practice Statement provides more information on the steps needed to become a Member only - as described in the eduGAIN Constitution.

The process to join eduGAIN as a Member Federation is as follows:

• A representative of the applicant Federation signs the eduGAIN Policy Declaration and presents it to the OT.
• The OT confirms that the applicant Federation fulfils the requirements in section 3.1 of the eduGAIN constitution. 
• The OT prepares and presents a membership proposal to the eSG for comment and review.
• The eSG approves or rejects the application via a vote.
• When an applicant is approved, the OT takes the necessary steps to register the Federation to eduGAIN.

Operational Team procedures

Registration and modification of federation information

Federation delegate and deputy are the only federation representatives authorized to submit information, therefore their identity needs to be established in a trusted way, this is however part of the global eduGAIN trust model, not specific to the SAML prifile.

Security levels

Support

The support is provided primarily via e-mail trough the support@edugain.or address.